Pickup truck hits boy, 7, in Lincoln

LINCOLN, Maine — A 7-year-old boy was being evaluated at a Bangor hospital late Wednesday after he was accidentally struck on Katahdin Avenue by a pickup truck being driven by a mill security officer on dinner break, police said.

Casey Kent of 6 Katahdin Ave. was conscious and alert at the scene. His injuries did not appear to be life-threatening, Lincoln police Officer David Cram said. A Penobscot Valley Hospital ambulance took Kent to the Lincoln hospital, where LifeFlight helicopter landed and eventually took Kent to Eastern Maine Medical Center.

Kent was bicycling down a driveway at 4 Katahdin Ave. about 8 p.m. when he came onto the road and collided with a southbound pickup truck owned and driven by Brad Murchison, 20, of Chester, Police Chief William Lawrence said.

A security officer at Lincoln Paper & Tissue, Murchison told police that he did not see the boy until it was too late, Cram said.

The investigation is continuing, but Cram and Lawrence said they doubted that Murchison would face any charges.

The driveway upon which Kent was riding is more than 100 feet long and cut deeply into the steep, almost ridgelike hill that lines the west side of Katahdin Avenue, a dead-end road about 1¼ miles long that runs north from West Broadway to the mill entrance at the end of Katahdin Avenue.

The hill blocks almost all visibility into the driveway from the road, and vice versa, Lawrence said.

“Visibility is poor on both parts,” Lawrence said Wednesday. “It appears that he [Murchison] was actually driving at a low speed. We estimate it was about 15 mph. He was slowing for the intersection [with West Broadway] and the bicycle didn’t stop.”

Katahdin Avenue is home to close to a dozen children and homes. A “Children Playing” sign is on the southbound side of the road. Residents said that speeders are common, especially during shift change at the mill, though two accident witnesses said Murchison did not appear to be speeding.

The bicycle was badly bent from going under the truck’s right front wheel.

An elderly woman who lives at 4 Katahdin Ave. said neighborhood youth occasionally play or ride bikes in her driveway, despite her wishes.